George Victor Du Noyer, Topographical Draughtsman
(b. 1817, d. 1869)
Topographical Draughtsman
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Was born in Dublin in 1817, the son of Louis Victor Du Noyer, native of Marseilles, a teacher of music. He was educated at a school in Great Denmark Street, and at an early age became a pupil of George Petrie (q.v.). When scarcely twenty he was, through Petrie's influence, engaged as a draughtsman on the Ordnance Survey, and during the few years he was so employed developed a love and knowledge of the ancient art and archaeology of Ireland for which he was afterwards noted. For some time about 1844 and 1845 he taught drawing at St. Columba's College, Stackallan, and afterwards became attached to the Geological Survey of Ireland with which he was connected until his death, rising to the second place in the department.
He became a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1859, and was also a valued member of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society. While engaged in the revision of the Geological Survey in the north of Ireland he contracted scarlet fever and died at Antrim on the 3rd January, 1869. His eldest daughter, Fanny, had succumbed to the same disease on the previous day.
Du Noyer exhibited drawings in the Royal Hibernian Academy from 1841 to 1863; he contributed eighteen illustrations to Hall's "Ireland," and did the drawings for Portlock's "Geological Report on Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh." A sketch by him, "Donnybrook Fair in the year 1830," taken on the spot, was lithographed and published by W. Collins; Capel Street (12 by 14 ½ inches) and a "View of the Royal Hospital from the Phoenix Park," was lithographed by himself for the frontispiece to the Rev. R. N. Burton's "History of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham," 1843. Eleven oblong folio volumes of his drawings, views of old buildings, antiquities, etc., taken in various parts of Ireland, the result of his lifelong labours, are in the Royal Irish Academy; and many sketches by him are in University College, St. Stephen's Green. A list of his drawings in the Royal Irish Academy is given in the "Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland," Vol. 20 (Vol. X of 4th Series).